ST CLARE OF MONTEFALCO, VIRGIN - 17 AUGUST

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 17th of August

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST CLARE OF MONTEFALCO, VIRGIN

Saint Clare was born at Montefalco about 1268. From her very childhood, St Clare gave evidence of the exalted sanctity to which she was one day to attain, and which made her the recipient of many signal favours from God. 

THE BISHOP GAVE THEM A RULE

St Clare, together with her older sister and a number of other pious young maidens, became desirous of entering the religious state and of professing the three vows of religion. They petitioned the Bishop of Spoleto for an approved rule of life, who imposed upon them in 1290 the rule of the Third Order (regular) of Saint Augustine. 

SHE WAS CHOSEN ABBESS

Upon the death of her older sister in 1295, Clare was chosen to succeed her in the office of abbess of the community at Santa Croce; but it was only in obedience to the command of the Bishop of Spoleto that she could be prevailed upon to accept this new dignity. 

SHE MULTIPLIED HER FASTS AND VIGILS

Kind and indulgent towards others, she treated herself with the most unrelenting severity, multiplying her fasts, vigils, and other austerities. To these acts of penance she added the practice of the most profound humility and the most perfect charity, while the suffering of her Redeemer formed the continual subject of her meditation. St Clare died on August, 18, 1308. She was canonised by Pope Leo XIII in 1881. 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)